Queenie by Jacqueline Wilson

It's 1953, the year Elizabeth is to be crowned Queen of England. Elsie Kettle can't wait to go to London with her beloved nan to see the Coronation Day celebrations. Then tragedy strikes. Nan and Elsie both fall ill with tuberculosis and Elsie is whisked away to the children's ward of Miltree Hospital.

Confined to bed for months, Elsie misses Nan desperately, and struggles to adapt to the hospital's strict rules. But every night after lights-out she tells magical tales of adventure to the other children on the ward. For the first time, Elsie finds herself surrounded by true friends - including Queenie, the hospital's majestic white cat.

Finally Elsie is well enough to leave the hospital. But before she does, she has one very special, very unexpected visitor...

I was a bit apprehensive about reading this. I hadn't heard anything about this book before, and I didn't even know what it was about. However, I decided to give it a try as I used to enjoy Jacqueline Wilson's books a lot when I was younger.

The main protagonist is a young girl named Elsie. She doesn't see her mum very much, and lives with her Nan who she adores. But suddenly her Nan gets seriously ill, and that's when things start to go very, very bad.

Elsie was very sweet, kind and caring but at times she was very naive and seemed a bit clueless about...well, everything. Maybe I just found that a bit annoying because of our age gap, I don't know. However, she was entertaining to read about, especially when she got up to mischief in the hospital.

The story revolved around a very sad topic, but the author managed to keep it lighthearted in most places so it's perfect for her younger readers, whilst still being informative and exciting for her older readers. It took me a while to get into the story, but after that I couldn't put it down (which is why I was awake until 3am...).

This is a great book for girls aged 9+, although it is quite long (400 pages or so.) I give it a rating of 4/5. Definitely a good book for current/previous fans of Jacqueline Wilson.

Jacqueline Wilson is one of the reasons why I love reading today, I used to be obsessed with her books! I don't know if her stories would have the same impact on me now but this sounds like a great read. Thanks for the great review, Amber! :)